NO JANUARY SIGNINGS: HOW ARSENAL CAN MAKE IT WORK

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So here we are, on deadline day, and it feels like a peak-Wenger one from way back when… the bad kind.

The squad is short a striker and a midfielder. It’s hard to skirt that reality. We are a lean ship heading into our last 17 games.

My criticism of the situation would focus less on the bodies we’ve not been able to bring in this window and more on the way we’ve managed the squad.

Eddie should have been out loan last season, I know it’s generally down to the players to decide, but we should have been more forceful, and dangled more of a carrot.

Balogun was clearly not ready for the Premier League when we watched him get rolled by Brentford on the first day of the season, he should have bee out on a short term loan.

If those two things happen, we’re in a better moment right now. We’d either have Eddie integrated or sold and replaced… and Balogun would be further baked, like Smith Rowe was after Huddersfield.

There’s also a lot to be said about the way Mikel Arteta rotates his squad… namely, that he doesn’t. Pep G keeps everyone included because he needs them all to be ready to show up at the highest level. Arteta sticks to an 11 until it breaks. That leads to players being excluded, which means when they are called upon, they aren’t ready to deliver.

Arsenal fans, myself included, have a tendency to be very rash with the way we judge players. They are the next generational talent or they are shit. If you speak to people in the game, they will tell you great things about Eddie. Great attitude, total professional, never complains. They’ll also talk up his talent and the regret that some of his loan deals have been detrimental to developing his talent. Namely, that he should have gone to Germany, not Leeds on loan.

My rambling point here is that he’s not been given the tools to succeed. He’s played with the second string or the kids. Arteta has known his striking issues all season, he has known that Auba was always an inch away from getting bombed, but he hasn’t given Eddie a run.

If you don’t include a player, emotionally, that takes it’s toll. But more to the point, if you don’t have minutes, you can’t find rhythm, and your game gets stiff. Eddie was our best player in preseason, his reward? 51 minutes of Premier League football. If we’d given him a run in the team, he’d be better prepared, he’d have scored goals, and Arsenal fans wouldn’t be freaking out now.

If he’s given a run, he’ll score goals, he will get better. The venom directed at him is very similar to the ‘Odegaard is a boring player’ stuff that went on in the summer. Another player that had a stiff game. Another player too many fans put in the bin.

Numbers, we’re not as bad as people are making out.

Manchester City, who are fighting on all the fronts, has 8 defenders, we have 7. They have 8 midfielders, we have 7. They have 3 forwards (Sterling, Mahrez, Jesus), we have 4 (Pepe, Eddie, Lacazette, Martinelli).

Yes, yes, I understand they have deeper quality, but again, we are fighting on one front, they are fighting on three.

People are talking about fatigue in January, and I will agree, it was a problem… but it was a problem for every club. We’re out of December/January. The players are having a 17 day break with their families in Dubai, then we have to manage a grand total of 2 games in February.

The biggest fixture issue we’ll face is a likely two week pile-up in March or April where we’ll have to manage a couple of 3 game a week scenarios.

There is also flexibility in the squad. Tomiyasu can play centre back. Martinelli can play through the middle. Ben White can play right back and in midfield.

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I would love us to do some business today for multiple reasons. The main one is momentum. A big signing now injects excitement into the bones of the fans, the players, and the coaching staff. Players love new signings as much as us.

I’d like security. Say what you will about Morata, but he’s basically a taller version of Lacazette. He’s an international, he has bundles of experience. He’d be a stunt double for the Frenchman should the worst happen.

… but what I will disagree about is spending money for the sake of it. Arsenal are not alone this January in having issues with signings. There’s not a lot of value to be had and the other reality is not a lot of players hit the ground running. If you get the right name, the value is in giving them 6 months preseason with you so they hit the next season at peak.

£75m for Alex Isaak would be insanity. He has so much talent, but he’s not the finished product. For that sort of money, you need the player to bang right away. Just look at the car crash United is having with Jadon, and he was doing numbers and performing at a high level consistently.

Doing deals based on a emotion or a shortcut mentality is how we landed ourselves in the mess we’re in right now.

Auba and Mhiki were Champions League gambles that… failed.

Pablo Mari and Cedric were… well, I’m not really sure, but we’re still living with their drabness. But in the moment, it felt sexy to fans, it felt like a solve, but it was far from it.

If you can do deals that work for the club strategy, the reality of our finances, and the 3 year plan… do it. If you can’t, move in the summer.

… also remember that football is a very murky game. The club might have been given a price for a player with 18 months on their deal, not liked it, and told the player to wait for them this summer because we’ll give them more salary because the fee will be lowered. Isaak a prime example here, he’s worth £75m right now because Sociedad are chasing top 4. He likely won’t be going for that in the summer, because they’ll know their place in the league, they’ll have time to negotiate, and they’ll have time to replace in a less damaging way.

Final point on transfers. Top 4 was not the target this season. If you’re honest, as a fan, it wasn’t a realistic objective for most of the fans. I think we did a poll that said most fans thought top 6 was realistic. The club has planned for that, top 4 is the stretch goal, Europe is the objective this season. Punting right now, if it’s not the right player, would damage the plan. If you bite on something short term, those players are hard to move on.

There’s still plenty of the day to go. I’m sure opportunities will arise. I’m sure some players will leave, notably, it’ll be Auba. The idea that Pepe is going comes from a publication that consistently gets things wrong to pump numbers around deadline day. So let’s see where this goes. The squad is finally lean, most of the players we moved on had no use, the squad we have left is the squad that has us where we are now. There’s no reason to think that we can’t hit the ground running for the last 17 games after some serious rest.

The league is in our hands. This is where Arteta and the players show what they are made of. Don’t doubt the players that have us within striking distance. Try not to catastrophise this moment, the same people doing it now are the same folk that said our signings wouldn’t move the needle. The same people that said we’d be welcoming Conte by November. The same people that have been consistently wrong this season.

It’ll be a tough battle, it’ll need luck, but we are equal to Spurs, West Ham, and United. All those names have problems that are slightly different. But we are firmly in the mixer.

P.S. Auba deal is off over salary, apparently. There are other clubs interested, but it is very late in the day. How awkward.

Right, listen to our latest podcast. We talk about all things Jan-related.

21 Comments
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DM

DM

grooveydaddy

1st

DM

Who’s lurking?

Bankz

Bankz is here for the tr4phy again

grooveydaddy

Damn

Bankz

LOL!
Nice try DM.
Not sorry

DM

Lol Bankz, same time same place once again

DM

Groovey – 2 seconds later and you go from 2nd to 4th lol

Mr Serge

you birds finished?

Crimson

Awkward

Bankz

The January TW has been shambolic thus far. The only good thing is we were able to shift some deadwoods.
I’m really looking forward to see how we will make this work between now and May.
Still think 4th was and is open for our taking. If we miss out, it’s simply because we didn’t want it enough or didn’t plan well.

Paddy Gooner

Aubameyang deal off cause of salary?

Ernest Reed

“If those two things happen, we’re in a better moment right now.” You cant be serious? A cluster-fu*k of a shit-show transfer window and gee whiz if only the club had done differently with Eddie and Balogun? You are really backing yourself into a round corner with some of these doozies. Seriously, if anyone cannot realize just how poor this all has and continues to be, I’m just beyond dumbfounded. And the bit about squad rotation? Well YEAH, its as obvious as the nose on your face. Unless Arteta can blow smoke rings out his ass, this is going to… Read more »

Matt

Just proves what a clown Aubamayang is. He jumps on a plane without having discussed salary?

F*cking idiot.

Ernest Reed

“Just proves what a clown Aubamayang is. He jumps on a plane without having discussed salary?”

Now now, for all that we know, his barber is in Barca and Auba wants to spiff up his avant garde look.

DM

Matt

I’m not a fan of Auba right now but your comment is pretty harsh. He flies out there to try to get the deal done. If they can agree, then they’re both happy. If they can’t, he flies back. What difference does it make to him? He’s not playing for us anyway. Jumping on a plane is not exactly out of the norm for these guys.

Mr Serge

Auba was not even told to go by Arsenal he went on his own accord like peter odinwinge did all those years ago

Mr Serge

imagine if this shit show of a window actually brings about eduetas demise

I really want to see a club statement as to what our intent is and was for the rest of the season

Raulishuss

And there goes the “auba is so desperate to leave the club he’ll do anything” theory.

Matt

DM

He flies out there without having previously discussed salary – seriously? And as you say, he’s not playing for us so why not get an agreement done so he can play football, even if it means (god forbid) lowering your wage demand. As I said earlier, a modern mercenary who wouldn’t have been tolerated as much as he has been if he wasn’t always grinning like a goat.

Guns of Hackney

Could be worse, could be Mason Greenwood.

20 years old. Done. Good fucking riddance if you ask me. And before you give me the old waffle about innocent until proven…not in this case.

His old lady didn’t beat herself up.